


In Pale Moonlight

by siesiegirl



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Enchanted Forest, Gen, Rumbelle Showdown, Rumbelle Showdown 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 07:32:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3802087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siesiegirl/pseuds/siesiegirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumbelle Showdown 2015 Round Four<br/>prompts: Thief, Traditions, Water</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Pale Moonlight

The last thing Belle wanted to do was bathe in the spring. The women of the castle, however, wouldn't stand for her shirking tradition, lest it bring ruin upon her family. She could hardly imagine any ruin greater than ogres threatening her home, and that started even before her betrothal. That betrothal - no, her _marriage_ \- was supposed to save her home. Gaston's kingdom was larger than hers, more powerful, with a larger army; and for the tiny price of Belle herself, that army would protect Avonlea, as well. 

Though she didn't believe in the superstition, she honestly didn't want to risk anything that might make Gaston retract his half of their arrangement. So she went, though she made the women let her do so alone, and soon was sitting on the bank of the little pool where brides for countless generations had bathed beneath the full moon on the night before their wedding. She considered the reflection of the moon upon the still water. She was meant to be wishing that her belly would soon grow as full, that her union would nourish her kingdom as the waters did the plants and animals of the forest, that she would emulate the water in her role as wife and mother: water provides for everything around it. Water replenishes itself to be taken from again and again. Water was not long turbulent, and sought to maintain a calm, smooth demeanor.

_Be still. Be quiet. Be pleasing to look upon. Be ready to give of yourself to your husband, your children, your kingdom. Do not seek recompense, praise, or gratitude. Stay within your banks._

Belle threw a pebble into the pool in frustration. She didn't _want_ any of those things. She turned away from the water, but that brought her to face the horizon, glowing red not with the sunset, but the fires of war. She sighed, now frustrated with herself. How selfish she was, to have the means to save her kingdom and yet to wish not to, only because it chafed. Stubbornly, she stood up and peeled out of her gown and underthings, draping them over a nearby bush so they wouldn't become dirty or wrinkled on the ground. 

She stepped into the water, surprised at its warmth; the rivers and lakes were fed by snow and were cold even in the height of summer. She waded out until her toes could barely touch the sandy bottom and let herself float, staring up into the night sky.

She startled when she heard movement on the bank, and almost convinced herself it was some animal until she noticed that her clothes were missing from the bush. "Show yourself, thief!" she demanded, staying out where the water covered her to the neck.

From out of the trees stepped a figure both wished for and feared the world over. The warmth of the spring water could not keep away the chill that ran through Belle at the sight of him. "I've been called worse, dearie," the Dark One said, shrugging carelessly. 

"Why did you take my clothes?" Belle asked, and he looked at the fabric in his hand as if surprised to find it there. 

"To get your attention, of course," he replied.

"You have it," she admitted, grudgingly. 

He smiled, pleased, though it didn't much improve his malevolent air. He tossed her clothes over one shoulder and they fell, neatly arranged, back onto the bush. "Why are you here, dearie?" he asked.

Belle was speechless with surprise at the odd question. "I'm... it's tradition," she stammered. "A girl is supposed to bathe in the spring beneath a full moon on the night before her wedding. For good luck and... prosperity."

"I know _that_ ," he said, flapping his hands in annoyance before leaning closer and asking with emphasis, " _Why_?"

"My marriage will protect my kingdom," she replied, with none of the pride one should expect from such a statement. "The safety of my people depends on me. On my ability to..." She couldn't explain further, her cheeks were already aflame.

Her visitor grinned suggestively, and that made it worse. Suddenly she wondered if, with his magic, the water was not protecting her from his gaze as much as she thought. "Why are _you_ here, Dark One?" she retorted. 

"Why am I ever anywhere?" he laughed, with a shrug that traveled down his arm and ended with a flick of the lace cuff at his wrist. "I'm here to make a deal."

"I have nothing to give you," she said. Belle had heard the stories, people tricked into promising things they shouldn't. Children. Gaston wanted heirs from her, and they were an unspoken part of her dowry. They were not hers to give, not even to the Dark One, not with her people's lives in the balance.

"I have never met someone who had _nothing_ ," he replied. 

"What do you want?" she asked, not to be tricked into making the first offer.

Something flickered in his expression, though with the darkness - and that _skin_ \- it was hard to say what. He drew himself up, though his height was not great, and declared, "I, the Dark One, will save your kingdom from the ogres and you from an onerous marriage, if you will come with me."

That sounded much too simple. "Where?" she asked, warily, "For what purpose?"

He twitched, perhaps in irritation. "To my castle, of course. I am in need of a caretaker."

"Caretaker?" Belle echoed.

"Those are my terms," the Dark One stated, with a smug air as if he had just laid the world at her feet.

Belle could have laughed. To trade a life of devotion, drudgery, and servitude from one man to another? That was no trade at all. At least as Gaston's lady she might earn some measure of respect. Might use her influence to improve life for the people of both kingdoms. She had great plans for making her library accessible to the public, teaching anyone who wished to learn how to read. Perhaps it would draw great thinkers, artists, inventors to their little corner of the world. The things she and her people could learn! And the Dark One thought she would give that up to... to sweep his floors? Belle _did_ laugh.

"No deal," she said. "I will not be your caretaker."

This time Belle was certain of his irritation. The Dark One, of course, was never refused. It amused her that it put him so out of sorts. In the moment he stood there sputtering, she had a new idea. 

_The things she could learn._

"Not a caretaker," she said, over the protests he was about to raise. "An apprentice."

"An apprentice?" He wrinkled his nose.

"Those are my terms," she replied. He could decline, of course. But of everyone in the world, for some reason the Dark One had come to _her_. She didn't think he would leave empty-handed. 

"Mm," he mused, looking at her with eyes that seemed to pierce both the darkness and her soul. 

"We have a deal."


End file.
